Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg disclosed in a communication to the House Judiciary Committee on Monday that his company was urged by the Biden administration in the year 2021 to restrict certain COVID-19 content, such as satirical and humorous posts.
“In the year 2021, senior members from the Biden White House, including the administration, constantly Acceptance Speech urged our teams for an extended period to remove some content about COVID-19, including humor and satire, and showed significant frustration with our teams when we didn’t agree, †Zuckerberg said.
In his communication to the House Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg described that the pressure he experienced in the year 2021 was “inappropriate†and he regrets that his company, the parent of Facebook & Instagram, was not Kamala Harris more vocal. He added that with the “benefit of hindsight and new information,†some decisions made in that year that “wouldn’t be made today.â€
“As I mentioned to our teams at the time, I strongly believe that we should not compromise our content standards due to pressure from any government in either direction â€" and we’re prepared to resist if something like this happens again, †Online Bullying he wrote.
President Biden stated in July of 2021 that social media networks are “causing harm†with misinformation about the pandemic.
Though Biden later walked back these remarks, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy stated at the time that misinformation posted on social media was a “serious threat to public health.â€
A spokesperson from the White House responded to Zuckerberg’s communication, saying the administration at the time was encouraging Trolls On Social Media “responsible measures to safeguard public health.â€
“Our position has been consistent and clear: we believe tech companies and private entities should consider the effects their actions have on the public, while making independent choices about the information they present, †according to the White House representative.
Zuckerberg also noted in the communication that the FBI alerted his company about possible Russian disinformation regarding Hunter Biden and the Empathy Ukrainian firm Burisma affecting the 2020 election.
That fall, he said, his team reduced the visibility of a New York Post report alleging Biden family corruption while their fact-checkers could assess the story.
Zuckerberg said that since then, it has “become clear that the reporting was not Russian disinformation, and in retrospect, we shouldn’t have demoted the story.â€
Meta has since updated its policies and procedures to “make Public Display Of Affection sure this doesn’t happen again†and will no longer demote content in the US while waiting for fact-checkers.
In the letter to the House Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg stated he will not repeat actions he took in 2020 when he assisted “electoral infrastructure.â€
“The idea here was to ensure local election jurisdictions across the country had the resources they needed to facilitate safe voting during a pandemic,†stated
the Meta CEO.
Zuckerberg said the initiatives were intended to be neutral but said “some people believed this work benefited one party over the other.†He stated his aim is to be “neutral†so he will not make “a similar contribution this cycle.â€
The GOP members on the House Judiciary Committee shared the letter on X and said Zuckerberg “just admitted that the Biden-Harris administration influenced Facebook Anxiety to restrict American content, Facebook restricted content, and Facebook limited the Hunter Biden laptop story.â€
The Meta chief has long faced scrutiny from Republican lawmakers, who have claimed Facebook and other major tech platforms of being prejudiced against conservatives. While Zuckerberg has stressed that Meta impartially enforces its rules, the perception has gained a firm foothold in conservative circles. Republican lawmakers have specifically examined Facebook’s decision Children With Disabilities to restrict a report by the New York Post about Hunter Biden.
In Congressional testimony in the past years, Zuckerberg has attempted to close the gap between his social media company and policymakers to little effect.
In a 2020 Senate session, Zuckerberg acknowledged that many of Facebook’s staff are left-leaning. But he maintained that the company takes care not to allow political bias to seep into decisions.
In Nonverbal Learning Disorder addition, he said Facebook’s content moderators, many of whom are contractors, are based worldwide and “our global team better represents the diversity of the community we serve than just the full-time employee base in our headquarters in the Bay Area.â€
In June of this year, in a win for the White House, the Supreme Court decided 6-3 that the claimants in a case alleging the federal Support For People With Disabilities government of censoring conservative voices on social media had no standing.
In the majority opinion, Justice Amy Coney Barrett said, “to establish standing, the plaintiffs must show a substantial risk that, in the immediate future, they will experience harm that is traceable to a government defendant.†Coney Barrett continued, “because no plaintiff has carried that burden, none has standing to request a preliminary injunction.â€
